For many years, ribbons or strips have been used to mark off work or hazardous areas. In many instances the ribbons or strips have been made of a flexible plastic tape deployed between and attached to supports. Once deployed, these strips block passage of pedestrians or vehicles from hazardous areas. Often, the tape material is brightly colored. It may also have a warning printed or applied on it in a contrasting color. One advantage of using tape material of this type over some of the other materials is that tape is often distributed and stored in rolls. A user only unrolls that amount of tape necessary for deployment, and re-stores the remaining tape.
My invention, Flag Strip (U.S. Pat. No. 5,244,715), is an example of such a tape. The flexible plastic tape has parallel edges, and is substantially longer than it is wide. There are cuts made into the tape at selected intervals along the tape that define pennants which extend generally along the length of the tape. When it is deployed and longitudinal tension is applied, the pennants partially separate from one edge of the tape. These pennants can make the tape more noticeable and may help to emphasize the cautionary nature of the tape.
Also for many years, advertising displays have been available with hanging pennants or banners strung together, usually by some sort of fiber or metal rope material. An example of this may be seen in a patent by R.J. Leander (U.S. Pat. No. 2,688,303—Patented Sep. 7, 1954). Another example of the use of a rope with hanging pennants for warning purposes is the water ski tow rope of B. G. Moreland (U.S. Pat. No. 4,813,369—Patented Mar. 21, 1989). Naval pennants are often strung together to communicate information. Other devices are available that display hanging pennants, but the connecting support structure is rigid. In any event, mechanisms of this type cannot be stored as compactly as flexible tape that is rolled. My flag strip invention allows for compact storage of rolls of tape that deploy into a series of hanging pennants that remain connected to each other by the flexible tape material. An advantage of using the flag strip is that a message can be printed or applied in contrasting colors on the material that connects the pennants to each other as well as on the pennants themselves. A great advantage of using the flag strip over the other conventional pennant banner hanging devices is its relatively low cost. However, flag strip is limited to long and narrow pennants that are different from conventional pennant displays having somewhat wider pennants.
T. Scarlet (U.S. Pat. No. 4,177,750—Patented Nov. 12, 1978) teaches that individual pennants may be cut from a continuous flexible tape most economically by inverting alternate pennants. Using this method, a flexible tape comprised of triangular pennants is produced with alternating triangles inverted. Arranging the triangles in this way minimizes the wasted plastic material. The length of each pennant can be almost equal to the width of the tape. However, there is no suggestion in this patent for the pennants to be deployed and also to remain connected by tape material as is the case for my flag strip. Scarlet separates the pennants from the tape and from each other, and prepares them for conventional deployment as is shown in Leander or Moreland.
There is a need for an inexpensive multi-banner device that can be stored compactly in rolls, and that permits a wider variety of banner shapes than does flag strip. Such a device should permit a portion of the rolled material to be deployed as desired, and the remaining material to be re-stored until needed.
The present invention is a flexible tape that deploys to present a series of pennants or banners, larger than the strips of U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,715, connected to each other by flexible connectors. The tape is cut in such a way as to define the pennants and connectors. When deployed, the pennants separate from the connectors to form hanging pennants, their appearance being similar to that of the conventional devices.
Many tape or ribbon materials have significant tensile strength. Some of these materials have the additional property that they may be stretched without significantly diminished tensile strength. Upon deployment, tape made from these materials can be stretched without tearing, and the distance between the pennants would be elongated without unacceptable pennant distortion. This property enhances the compact storage characteristics.